Selective call receivers are typically battery powered to allow for portability and convenience. Reducing the current consumption of a selective call receiver helps to increase its operating duration which is limited by the energy content of batteries.
In a selective call receiver, a large portion of available current is consumed by its receiver circuit. To reduce the current consumption of the receiver circuit, current saving schemes are implemented that selectively activate and inactivate the receiver circuit.
Determining when to activate or inactivate the receiver circuit of a selective call receiver requires proper processing of a selective call signal intended for the selective call receiver so as to not miss any selective call messages for the selective call receiver. Inadvertently activating the receiver circuit causes unnecessary operation of the selective call receiver, and hence, a wastage of current. This further shortens the battery life of the selective call receiver unneccessarily.
Inadvertently activating the receiver circuit of a selective call receiver is known in the art as falsing. Falsing occurs, for example, when noise is wrongly detected as a selective call signal and thereby activating the receiver circuit of the selective call receiver.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus to reduce current consumption in selective call receivers by reliably determining when to continue activating the receiver circuit for processing the selective call signal.